Temple Brew House

The snow was just about gone on Saturday morning but the cold weather had still put us off our original plan of going to the Beavertown Taphouse. That particular joy will have to wait a few weeks. Instead, I decided to have a look if there were any interesting looking places over by Esther’s work in Covent Garden. I found a few options but the most intriguiing was the Temple Brew House, Home to the Essex Street Brewing company. Going down the stairs into the bar, I was pretty pleased with the choice as it was a great atmosphere for a few beers. They had sport on the telly, a wide selection of board games and loads of choice behind the bar.

Pint No. 66

What? – Tiny Rebel, Mango Down Wit

Where? – Temple Brew House, Temple

When? – Saturday 3rd March 2018

My first choice for the I was a little pump blind and the excitement of what was in front of me got the better of me a bit. I’d had a pint of Peach beer the night before and when I saw Mango Wit, I thought it’d be a fool to miss it. It was only after ordering that I realised two things. 1) It was £7! SEVEN QUID. Somewhere in Somerset, my dad would have felt a shiver go down his spine. 2) I was in an establishment that brewed beer, and I’d failed to order one of the beers they actually make there. Idiot.

Anyway, once I’d gotten over the initial shocks to my system and tried the beer, I thought it was pretty good. I don’t think Tiny Rebel managed to marry the flavours of beer and mango together as well as Thornbridge did with their Melba, but it still wasn’t bad. It’s really bright and yellow and quite refreshing and something I could picture going well on a roof terrace in July. It was okay in a basement bar in early March though.

Overall Score: 3/5

Obviously, after my faux pas in ordering the first pint, I had to rectify things with the second.

Pint No. 67

What? – Essex Street, MAC Pale Ale

Where? – Temple Brew House, Temple

When? – Saturday 3rd March 2018

After a very brief accent game, we went and found the board game exploding kittens which is pretty amusing. Whilst playing, I was enjoying a pint of Essex Street’s MAC Pale Ale, so called because it’s triple hopped using Mosaic, Amarillo and Citra. It was a nice, easy pint and at 4.5% would come in under the session umbrella. I thought it was a really well suited drink to the environment but it wasn’t particularly memorable. I probably wouldn’t go out of my way to have another one and it’s not remarkable, but it was a safe pair of hands.

Overall Score: 2.5/5

After Exploding Kittens had worn thin (fun, but not amazing with 2 players), we moved on to playing Harry Potter Trivial Pursuit without the board or the pieces. So really, it was just a Harry Potter quiz. Esther’s specialist subject is Harry Potter, so I was being roundly trounced and needed another beer to drown my sorrows.

Pint No. 68

What? – Essex Street, Gavel

Where? – Temple Brew House, Temple

When? – Saturday 3rd March 2018

The beer in question was another one of the house tipples, an APA called Gavel. Again, this was quite unassuming, inoffensive but lacked a USP for me. It was a quite nice, cask ale that I prefer to the MAC, but I would probably give something else a bash were I to go back.

Overall Score: 3/5

After that pint, the brew house started filling up with big groups of men being all rowdy and chatting shit too loudly so we decided to pack up and leave. Also, I’d lost the Harry Potter game heavily and was sulking a bit.

We got on the tube and headed to Fulham to try and find a nice place to eat. Failing, in our goal, we ended up at Octoberfest Pub, a stereotypical but poor attempt at a bierkeller. The women were in dodgy outfits, there was an oompa band and some cunt was chatting shit on a microphone. Not being arsed to find somewhere different though, we stuck it out.

Pint No. 69

What? – Octoberfest Pub, Pilsner

Where? – Octoberfest Pub, Fulham

When? – Saturday 3rd March 2018

We first tried a pint of Octoberfest Pilsner. It wasn’t too bad actually, more taste than I expected, though it was seriously fizzy. The Roma vs Napoli game from Serie A was on telly so we played a drinking game to it to get into the spirit of our surroundings a bit. Unfortunately I lost so had to neck the beer. It was pretty good for downing, not too much taste, but a bit nicer than a standard shit lager.

Overall Score: 1.5/5

Pint No. 70

What? – Konig Ludwig, Weissbier

Where? – Octoberfest Pub, Fulham

When? – Saturday 3rd March 2018

I don’t know if it was because this was pint 5 of the day, I’d just downed a pint, or just because it’s a good beer, but I really enjoyed this one. Firstly, it was served in an ace glass, really well sculpted and complimented the Weissbier well. It’s a really hazy orange colour and smelled quite lemony and sour. It was also really interesting in my mouth both in texture and taste. The head was a bit like whipped egg white and the beer beneath was fruity and sour. I think this is the first Weissbier I’ve ever had on draft and I would definitely have it again. Best beer of the day, surprisingly.